Imagine, some American colleagues are coming to visit your site next week
and your director has planned a dinner at a local restaurant.
After all,
everybody knows French food is the best in the world,
especially for Americans!
But
there’s a problem.
You’re going to have to talk about the food on the menu
and the last time you studied food vocabulary was
in middle school (that’s collège)!
So
how can you start dinner on a positive note and have the vocabulary
to help your American guest?
I’m Christina and you’re watching Speak Better, Feel Great TV.
The place to boost your English and boost your career.
In this video, I’m gonna show you how can be the perfect host
when you take your American colleague out to eat.
Ya ready?
First,
a little bonus expression:
to go out to eat.
Americans will completely understand you if you say “We’re going to a restaurant”,
but they’ll probably use the expression “go out to eat.”
go out to eat go out to eat
For example, “Hey Patrick, do you wanna go out to eat tonight?”
In France, the first thing you do at the table is order the apéritif.
In America, the first thing you do at the table is order
the main course.
In fact, we don’t really have a word for apéritif.
So, you could ask your guest
“Do you want something to drink before the meal?”
Or
why not teach your guest the word “apéritif”.
He can manage little French
For example,
“Do you want an apéritif?
It’s a drink before the meal
and it’s typically French.
You can’t have a good meal without an apéritif!”
Then, you’ll probably have to help your American guest with the menu.
Even if the restaurant has an English menu,
the translations may be bad.
Another problem: the dish may be so unfamiliar,
that even with a good translation, your American guest
doesn’t understand what he risks eating!
What's “White cheese?
I know blue cheese,
but what’s white cheese?”
Before you recommend dishes,
ask your guest if they have any special requirements.
You can say:
Is there anything you don’t like?
Are you allergic to anything?
Is there anything you can’t eat?
But then, don’t hesitate to suggest things!
After all, you know French cuisine
better than your American guest!
To recommend dishes, you can say:
This place does a very good gratin dauphinois.
If you want to try something local, get the tartiflette. It’s delicious .
I always get the diots braisés.
It’s a type of sausage cooked in wine.
and it's served with crozets
which is a type of pasta.
If you go to a French restaurant, there will be a lot of dishes that will be totally new for your American guests.
Even really basic French dishes like
“sole meunière” or “paupiettes de veau”
will be totally foreign for some Americans.
When my parents came to France for the first time, they thought “fromage blanc” was really exotic!
And
it was the only thing they didn’t like.
Here’s a simple phrase that you can use to describe a lot of dishes:
“It’s a type of .....
dish cooked ....
and it comes with...”
You can use basic words to fill in the gaps,
like “It’s a type of meat dish”;
or it's a type of fish dish
“It’s cooked in the oven
or It’s cooked in a wine sauce”;
and “It comes with Pasta.”
or “It comes with vegetables.”
Let’s try a game.
I’m your American guest,
and I ask you about a dish on a menu
at a French restaurant.
You’ll have a few seconds to tell me about it.
Try to use the formula you just learned
.And
Be prepared for your American colleague to butcher
the pronunciation of French dishes!
What’s
“poulet basquaise”?
what's
“filet de fera et
gnocchis de pomme de terre”?
Let’s check your descriptions:
and your comprehension of your american colleagues
terrible pronunciation in French.
Poulet basquaise:
a type of chicken dish cooked with tomatoes and peppers and it comes with rice.
Filet de fera et gnocchis de pomme de terre:
a type of fish cooked in the oven and it comes with gnocchi.
Gnocchi is a type of big pasta.
So, how did you do
could you describe these typically French dishes to your American colleague
and also could you understand their terrible French pronunciation
if you don't understand them
there's always the menu and you can always ask them to point
to what they are talking about.
Trust me American pronunciation of French really bad.
Here’s your Speak Better, Feel Great challenge for this week:
I know you don’t go to restaurants with Americans every day,
so this week
describe your favorite dish to us in the comments below.
And to make it fun, don’t tell us what the dish is.
We’ll try to guess!
You’ll be able to practice the language from this video,
and check that your description is clear.
Did you learn something from this video?
Then subscribe to my YouTube channel right now.
Or better yet,
go to christinarebuffet.com
and sign up for the newsletter, where I share exclusive resources
and tools to help you improve your English.
I’m Christina from Speak Better, Feel Great TV.
See you next time.